Penny for NASA

At the beginning of the nineteen sixties, America was thriving, coming out of a great decade with many believing a "Golden Age" was on the horizon, but before a "Golden Age" could even start, unlikely events in the US started happening. By the mid nineteen sixties we were still at war with Vietnam and Civil Right movements were happening all over the country, it seemed as though, we as a country were divided in so many ways with no hope of coming together anytime soon.

Our young and charming president, John F Kennedy, had promised a great and prosperous decade, but it was false dreams with a hopeless reality starting to set in with the average American. When he was assassinated on November 22, 1963, our hopes of peace seemed far in the distance. Something so great and daring needed to be done. Something that would bring the US together and stop the hate and war, at least for a brief moment in time. What other event could achieve such a goal than a space race to put a man on the moon.

The US and Soviet Union, though never went to war, challenged each other to show the world who was the greatest superpower. With all the events going on in the US, plus being in steady competition with the Soviet Union, we had to win the space race. On July 10, 1969 the US took the first attempt to put a man on the moon and it was a successful mission.  Even though most believe we went to the moon for all the wrong reasons, the advancements in technology we gained from the mission put us way ahead of the curve from any other country on the planet. Most of those technologies would eventually trickle down to the average consumer.

When you try to do something nobody has ever done, you need materials and technologies that no company manufactures. You have no choice but to create and invent things you need from scratch.  NASA has been doing this for over 50 years and the average consumer has benefited from it. These products that end up in the consumers hands are known as NASA 'spin-offs'. Things like memory foam, scratch-resistant lenses, cordless power tools, solar cells, and fire fighter gear all started at a NASA facility.

As you can see we benefit a great deal from what NASA does. I hear people say our tax dollars for NASA is a waste, but most of them have no clue about the spin-off technologies. Me personally; I think the discoveries from NASA’s missions  are more important than the spin-off technologies. For those who don't see it that way, think of the other ways you benefit from it.

This brings me to my point. NASA get's half of a penny on every tax dollar you pay. "A HALF OF A PENNY!" You would think the government could budget a little better than that. The total budget for 2014 was 3.5 billion. Social Security and Healthcare get 34% each, which I can see reasonable and the Defense Department get's the next biggest slice of 17%; that's roughly 596 million. While the military has their own list of spin-off's through DARPA, like the internet and GPS, I think NASA should get a little piece of that pie.

If Congress could just budget one whole penny for NASA, double the current budget, that would be a great start. This is something that many people believe can be done and are sighing a petition, 'Penny4NASA' to get the ball rolling. If you're like me and thousands of others, take the time to sign and lets continue to help fund the breakthroughs in science and technology that we all benefit from.